In this talk, Susan Slyomovics will discuss her new book, Monuments Decolonized: Algeria’s French Colonial Heritage. “Statuomania” overtook Algeria beginning in the nineteenth century as the French affinity for monuments placed thousands of war memorials across the French colony. But following Algeria’s hard-fought independence in 1962, these monuments took on different meanings and some were “repatriated” to France, legally or clandestinely. Today, in both Algeria and France, people are moving and removing, vandalizing and preserving this contested, yet shared monumental heritage. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and interviews in both countries, she analyzes the colonial nostalgia, dissonant heritage, and ongoing decolonization and iconoclasm of these works of art.

This event is both in-person and virtual. Click above for the zoom link.

Susan Slyomovics is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Near Eastern Languages & Cultures at UCLA. She is the author of books and articles on the topics of reparations, anthropology of art, and cultural and material heritage of the Middle East and North Africa. Her recent book, Monuments Decolonized: Algeria’s French Colonial Heritage (Stanford University Press, 2024), received the 2025 Ed Bruner Book Award from the Council on Heritage and the Anthropology of Tourism (CHAT) of the American Anthropological Association.